Greening the State

Robyn Eckersley’s The Green State makes a notable contribution to green political theory as well as to more general debates about the evolution of the modern state, the future of democratic governance, and changing patterns of international interaction. The book’s argument is complex and multilayered, offering a normative vision of a ‘green state’ that has moved beyond existing democratic practices to embody the values of ‘ecological democracy’. Such a ‘transnational green democratic state’ is seen as constituting a critical link in a system of global ecological governance. The first part of Eckersley’s work explores three challenges to the project of greening the state. First, there is the ‘anarchic character’ of the existing state system, where insecurity and competition for resources drive states to engage in environmentally destructive behaviour. Second, there is ‘capitalist accumulation’ which leads states to endorse environmentally perverse growth-oriented policies. And third, there are the ‘democratic deficits’ of the liberal democratic state, particularly the ascendance of instrumental rationality and those liberal ‘dogmas’ that impede the protection of environmental goods. In each case Eckersley argues that it is possible to overcome these difficulties, and to transform existing realities. The normative theory of the green state is presented in more detail in the second half of the book, with an examination of the nature of ‘ecological democracy’, the role of civil society and the green public sphere, the evolution of transnational democracy, and the greening of sovereignty. Although the argument draws on many theoretical literatures – including work from international relations, liberal and neo-Marxist political theory, and environmental politics – the writings of Habermas play a particularly pivotal role. Central to Eckersley’s perspective is what she describes as the ‘ambit claim’ of ecological democracy – that all those affected by decisions about environmental risk (including people outside the territory over which the state holds